Are you an established professional who wants to make positive changes in your community and the world? Our club members are dedicated people who share a passion for community service and friendship.
Our 1.4 million-member organization started with the vision of one man—Paul P. Harris. The Chicago attorney formed one of the world’s first service organizations, the Rotary Club of Chicago, on 23 February 1905 as a place where professionals with diverse backgrounds could exchange ideas and form meaningful, lifelong friendships. Rotary’s name came from the group’s early practice of rotating meetings among the offices of each member.
In the beginning…
Past President Dr. Carl Gross presided at today’s meeting in place of our beloved Sue Gilbreth. Carl started the meeting with a clever joke about the unused brain of a politician. Al West led us in the Pledge and Christine Golden gave the inspiration.
Upcoming Programs
Marilyn Mosely gave us a preview of upcoming programs:
Next week Nargis Zagreb will tell us about educating women in Afghanistan
Following week we will hear from Dr. Ryan Jackson on medical compassion
Announcements
Sargent at Arms Dave Watson needs volunteers
Kathy Yee told us about RYLA
Al West told us about Arbor Day April 24 at Mira Monte School
We sang Happy Birthday to Leslie Bouche!
Jack Jacobs complained about being photographed while snoozing. (Dr. Gross smiled slyly.) In case you missed last week’s photo, here’s another copy.
Fining with Colin Huren
Colin did his usual excellent job of entertaining us with obscure show business questions and extracting funds for Rotary Projects.
Program: Tania Parker, Deputy Director of Ojai Valley Land Conservancy
Tania Parker, a home-grown Ojai girl, gave us an lively presentation on the history and recent activities of the OVLC. She then gave us a more detailed description of the “Re-wild Ojai Project”, whose goal is to transform traditional grass yards into native plant gardens. Here are some of the points I found most interesting:
95% of the US land mass is no longer “nature”, but has been converted into residences, agriculture or business use.
Native plants are the basis of our food web.
Insects are very dependent upon native plants
The OVLC nursery produces 10,000 native plants
Insecticides can kill insects up to two years after application
Native plants are helpful in fire prevention
There were a number of questions from the audience about invasive species, bird population, and other topics.
Tania encouraged Rotarians to sign up for the April 18 native garden tour; 14 homes will make their gardens available for viewing.
Closing
Dr. Gross closed the meeting with a quote from Willa Cather:
“We come and go, but the land is always here”.
You are invited to visit us at an upcoming meeting.
